First Truancy... ALso Update...

tessaturtle

New Member
Hi Everyone :) It has been about a little bit since I have posted regarding my difficult child...life got a little busy! FIrst of all, last time I was on, I let everyone know about his 3rd psychiatric hospital stay. Well, he was in for about 3 1/2 weeks (much shorter than the last time) and came out on new medications! Yay! we had been trying to get his prescriber to drop the seroquel completely and he kept raising it until hospitilization. It was nice to finally have someone listen to us (the hyperactivity, the anger, the agression, the manic state) and the school (re:the extreme motor restlessness).

Honestly, on these new medications, he is significantly better. He is redirectable now and is able to stop himself and breathe before he melts down too bad.

However, we did have two huge setbacks today and Sat night. Saturday night he had an all out melt down over being asked to get ready for bed. He tried to break his tooth brush in half and became very combative. Today, he had a violent melt down over a stuffed animal. He refused to buckle his seat belt on his Special Education bus so I had to go out there to try to convince him to do it or do it for him. He physically fought me the whole way. I brought the phone out so he could talk to his father...that didn't work either. He was told the cops and the truancy officer would be called, no luck. He was consequenced bby grounding and taking his beloved game boy away...no luck...he was even reminded that irrational actions like he was having lead to hospitilization, he didn't care. Finally the bus driver said she had to leave so he needed to get off...uh ok, if I can;t get him to buckle his seat belt, how can I get him to move off of the bus!? I tried to physically escort him, he dropped his weight and fell to the ground. I told him he could either walk on his own inside the house (dad was already on his way home from work) or the PD could come and bring him in, then he got up and walked in.

S.O. finally got home, I left to take easy child to school and go to work (late). SO called the PD (something wehad been told to do anyway by difficult child's therapist) and let them know the situation. THe PD took down difficult child's diagnosis and behavior/actions history and recorded in case we need their assistance next time. THey also took note of his age (11 yrs old can be charged). SO also talked to the truant officer to report difficult child. THe truant officer said in the future to call and she would come here and take him to school herself; she also noted it for the record.

We were hoping the truant officer would come out here and scare the bejesus out of him (since it was his first time doing this). BUt, he was listening while SO made these calls, so hopefully he got the point. He is also without his gameboy for at least a week and he has to do extra chores and turn over his chore money to his dad to understand the lost wages.

Oh and he started his home-based therapy today...thats a whole other story for another thread!! I'll have to let you guys know about that one some other time!!!
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
Well, I hope the things you have in put in place will help him get to school in the future.

I know years ago I called the truant officer on my difficult child and she just knows today that she HAS to go to school or I will call truant officer. For some reason she really does not want that to happen. Funny how some things affect them and others don't. The electronics would never affect my difficult child. But, we still take them away today as sometimes you just feel you have to do something to try. It never actually gets the lesson learned for my difficult child. Just makes life miserable for everybody around her. She even has said that before. Go ahead and take away my gameboy, TV, playstation - whatever - and I will just make you life miserable. Sigh....it is never easy with these kids.
 
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